A report on the appropriate use of students' teacher evaluation surveys is one of three reports the University Faculty Senate will consider at its meeting this afternoon.

No legislation will be considered at the senate's 1:30 meeting in 112 Kern.

The senate will discuss an Advisory and Consultative Report on the use of Student Rating of Teacher Effectiveness surveys for promotion and tenure evaluation. The report recommends normative data and standard deviations not be used in analyzing the reports. After discussion, a vote will be taken to measure the senate's approval of the report's recommendations.

Dwight Davis, vice chairman of the senate Committee on Faculty Affairs, said he could not predict if the report would be accepted by the senate.

"Drawing . . . conclusions based on SRTE mean scores differing by tenths or hundredths of a point is a case of giving undue precision to data that are far from precise," a statement compiled by the senate Committee on Faculty Affairs maintains.

James Smith, chairman of senate Teaching Evaluation Subcommittee, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

An informational report on the Affirmative Action Office will be presented by the senate Committee on Faculty Affairs.

According to the report's 1988 complaint summary, the University Affirmative Action Office handled 302 complaints -- including 269 informal, 18 formal, and 15 external complaints -- last year.

A formal complaint is signed and filed with the Affirmative Action Office and requires an investigation, said Carmen Borges, affirmative action specialist at the University. People accused of discrimination or harassment and their supervisors are notified in writing about the complaint and the complainant, Borges said.

"The Affirmative Action Office does not take sides," she added.

An informal complaint does not require a signature and is confidential. "People just want to get their situation solved," Borges said.

Of the 287 internal University complaints, 110 alleged sexual harassment or discrimination based upon sex, 78 claimed discrimination based on race, 13 based on handicaps, nine for age and seven for nationality, the report said.

The senate also will hear an informational report on University Libraries Support for Research at Penn State prepared by the senate committees on Research and Libraries. The report concludes ". . . library support for research has been adequate" and "The single most important information resource for meeting current and anticipated research needs is the PSU libraries collections at the researcher's location."

The conclusions are based on a survey of all faculty and full-time graduate students and part-time graduate students at Commonwealth campuses.

Respondents rated the importance of library resources on a scale of one to five, with one being unimportant and five being very important, Savaltore Meringolo, chairman of the subcommittee, said. The category labeled "PSU libraries collection at my location" achieved a mean rating of 4.1, he said.

The report identifies personal collections as second and departmental data files as third in overall importance for research.